Palladium Books® Weekly Update – Feb. 6, 2014

By Kevin Siembieda

This week has been a whirlwind. Between dealing with more winter snowstorms (7.6 inches just yesterday – 68 inches of snow for the Winter Season so far, that’s about 28 inches more than usual for the ENTIRE winter, and 1-3 more are coming this weekend), end of year tax matters and bookkeeping, writing, assigning artwork, advertising, coordinating day-to-day business matters, planning summer conventions and keeping all the balls in the air ... another week has just flown by. The other day, Alex walked into my office and said, out of the blue, “Kev, I don’t know how you handle it all.” So I guess the level of work and business activity must have been obvious. Though I feel pretty tired by the end of most days, I've been waking up highly motivated and raring to go. In fact, when I've been editing and writing I’m usually hot as can be. That’s great. The trick is squeezing in time to write.

The Rifter® Super-Subscription Drive – Low Price – Free Gift

I’m keeping this the lead in the Update because you folks have been subscribing like crazy and the special offer is over at the end of February. Place your orders now so you don’t forget.

It only happens once a year – for a limited time – The Rifter® Super-Subscription Drive. And Palladium gamers are jumping at the opportunity. I’d like to think it is because The Rifter® has been so consistently good the last 8-10 issues, but I think it also has to do with the FREE gift selection we are offering this year. It’s pretty darn good, with a little bit for everyone. That’s awesome. Please keep the orders coming.

Here are four reasons why this is the perfect time to try The Rifter® or renew or start your subscription:

Superior discount and each issue is delivered right to your door.

FREE gift worth $22 or more when you order now!

The price of The Rifter® is going up $2-$3 an issue in the spring or summer. Order during the Super-Subscription Drive and you lock in your low, low subscription price for the next year.

The Rifter® has been outstanding and is the place to find regular source material for Beyond the Supernatural™, Palladium Fantasy®, Splicers®, and Heroes Unlimited™. I’m happy to report that The Rifter® #65 continues that trend of great source material, with 60 new Necromancy spells for Rifts® and other magic settings, and HU2 source material, along with a ton of other great stuff. So the 2014 series of Rifters is off to a great start.

If you haven’t taken a look at The Rifter® lately (if ever), I suggest you try an issue. The Rifter® is an excellent source of ideas, characters, monsters, villains, powers, magic and adventures for your own game. Even articles designed for settings you don’t play are likely to offer ideas and material you can easily modify and incorporate into your campaign. In fact, drawing on concepts from outside the usual setting can spice up your game and keep players guessing. The Rifter® is a great tool for that. That’s the beauty of the Palladium Megaversal Game System; often you can take characters, gear and such from ANY world setting and drop them into any of the others without any work whatsoever. Other times, the amount of tweaking and modification is minimal to make it work in a new setting. That means a monster from Palladium Fantasy® can be easily used as a monster, mutant or alien in Heroes Unlimited™, After the Bomb®,Robotech®, Rifts®, Nightbane®,The Mechanoids®, Chaos Earth® or Splicers®, and vice versa. What needs to be adjusted? Perhaps just changing Hit Points/S.D.C. and damage to Mega-Damage, or M.D.C. and M.D. to Hit Points/S.D.C., or some other minor tweak.

Characters from Heroes Unlimited™ and After the Bomb® can be from the future, or the past (depending on the setting), or they can be mutants, or aliens, or beings from another or parallel world. As I am so wont to say, you are limited only by your imagination. The same holds true of towns, cities and adventures – use that place and the adventure ideas tailored to a different setting. Sure you may have to swap out monsters and treasure, or adjust motives, but you might be surprised how easy, fun and different that adventure plays out in a different world environment. And The Rifter® is the ultimate source for alternative, new and different ideas, adventures, characters, and story ideas. All of which can be tweaked to fit most settings, as can optional rules. The Rifter® is a factory for alternative ideas.

The Rifter® Super-Subscription Offer is your chance to try The Rifter® at a discount price and get a FREE gift. Offer ENDS February 28, 2014.

Click here to see the full description for your subscription options and choice of free gift in the Palladium Online Store.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #65 – Available now

The Rifter® #65 shipped last Friday as anticipated. It’s a great issue and should be arriving in mailboxes for most of you today and over the next week. Enjoy the 60 new Necromancy spells plus new O.C.C.s for Rifts® and Palladium Fantasy®, the material on Rifts® Black Market, the fun and scary Beyond the Supernatural™ adventure and NPCs, the Heroes Unlimited™ gadgets, heroes and source material, and the Chaos Earth® short story and other good stuff. And don’t forget, you can incorporate any of the source material and ideas in almost any setting throughout the Palladium Megaverse®.

UPDATE: Heroes Unlimited™30th Anniversary Hardcover – Ships next week

The Heroes Unlimited™ RPG turns 30 this year, and to celebrate, Palladium is releasing a commemorative, limited edition, signed and numbered, 30th Anniversary Hardcover. Our printer tells us the gorgeous, new HU2 Commemorative 30th Anniversary Hardcover Edition should arrive at the Palladium warehouse February 12. Customers are assigned numbers in the order in which they are received (and the credit card is approved), so the earlier you order, the lower the number you will receive; I know that’s important for some people. Order yours today. See complete details in the Palladium online store and elsewhere in this Update.

UPDATE: Rifts® Northern Gun™ Two – goes to the printer in February

Holy Cats, there is a ton of exciting gizmos, gadgets, body armor, power armor, vehicles, drones and other good stuff in this book. I’m done with the Robodome and Robo-Gladiators section (very cool) and I’m almost done with the body armor section. The latter includes new Hovercycle Ride Armor (lightweight, non-environmental body armor), the Street Wolf armored clothing line and other good stuff. In between working on the armor, I’ve been trying to cobble together other sections of the book and hopping around a bit stream-of-consciousness. Unfortunately, there are a lot of files and odds and ends that need to be woven together, plus new material to be added and old material to update. Having fun, but it’s been craaaaazy. Great book. You’re gonna love it. I wish I could devote ALL of my attention to just it. At this stage, NG-2 will be finished and sent to the printer this month, but I don’t know if we can get it printed and back in our hands this month. Starting to look like an early March release.

UPDATE: Rifts® Crossover: Megaverse® in Flames™ – ships March, 2014

Most of the art has been assigned. I think the editing and any rewrites on Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames™ will be a breeze, so I’m still thinking this will be an end of March release. This is another sourcebook that will surprise and please Rifts® fans.

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™

You guys and gals should have seen the news in our special Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Update sent out last Friday, in which we announced breaking the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Kickstarter items into two waves. One in June and one this fall. That will get the core product into the hands of the Kickstarter participants and retailers sooner than later, and people can get started building armies, painting and playing. As I stated, it’s not the ideal situation, but it is a sound alternative. Most people seem to agree, thank goodness.

I want to say, yet again, Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is absolutely coming out in 2014, and Kickstarter supporters will get product before retail. In fact, we have officially added the “Wave One” products – the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Box Game and first six Expansion Packs – for retail in Palladium Books’ online store, where they are ready for pre-orders.

UPDATE: Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook One

As I said last week, the Robotech® UEEF Marines Sourcebook has gotten a name change to Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook One. This is one of the other titles that we are looking to get released in the spring. We are not saying much about it yet, because we want to surprise and dazzle our Robotech® fans. I will be assigning the art for it very, very soon.

UPDATE: Dead Reign™ Sourcebook 5: Graveyard Earth™

Nothing new to report on Graveyard Earth™. As I mentioned last week, it is one of several projects we’ve had on the down-low. It is written by Matthew Clements and it takes a look at the worldwide zombie apocalypse. It also asks and answers the question, if you were caught overseas, perhaps in the military, could you find your way back home, and what kind of arduous journey would that be? More on this Dead Reign™ sourcebook in the weeks to come. Target release date is April, 2014. There should be another Dead Reign™ sourcebook for a fall release. And yes, we plan to support Robotech®, Heroes Unlimited™, Palladium Fantasy®, Beyond the Supernatural™ and others in the year 2014.

The Rifter® #65 Sneak Preview – available now on DriveThruRPG.com

A FREE Sneak Preview of The Rifter® #65 is now available on DriveThruRPG.com. There are also previews available for Dragons and Gods™, Rifts® Northern Gun™ One, Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook,Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™ (Revised Edition), Rifts® Black Market,Rifts® Lemuria, Dead Reign™ RPG, Endless Dead™ sourcebook and others. Plus we plan to add other sneak previews. The original Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms World Book is also available as a PDF on DriveThruRPG, for those of you who may be interested. More is coming.

We have finally added some of those new collectibles and out of print Palladium titles to my online store, as well as put a bunch of the toys on sale. Special Palladium items include The Rifter® #4, other out of print Rifter® issues, the Rifts® Northern Gun™ One hardcovers, among others. All signed by various staff and freelance creators. We’ll keep adding items as supplies allow and as I scrounge items up. There are usually out of print titles, redlined proofreader photocopies signed by me and the staff, signed manuscripts with editors’ corrections, some original art, hardcover books (including Rifts® Northern Gun™ One) and other items you’ll enjoy. There are also hundreds of toys and action figures, all from my personal collection. All items in the store are from my own personal archives and collection. Take a look every few days as new items are added. There may be some items that are perfect for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries.

That’s all for now

That’s it for this Update, as we continue to work at getting a number of new RPG products in the pipeline for going to the printer and Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave One into final manufacturing. Stay warm and game on.

Palladium Books is 33 years old and the Heroes Unlimited™ RPG turns 30 this year. To celebrate, Palladium is releasing a special, commemorative, Gold Heroes Unlimited™ 30th Anniversary Hardcover in February, for only $40. The original HU2 hardcover sold for $50 and has since become a collector’s item that sells for $200-$350 on the secondary market.

To preserve the value of the “original” Heroes Unlimited™ Hardcover Edition, we have made the HU2 30th Anniversary Edition as visibly different (and cool) looking on the outside, as possible. The material used for the cover is different (not leatherette), the blue is a different, more vibrant shade of blue, and the cover is imprinted in gold foil but features artwork depicting a superhero and the words “Special 30th Anniversary Edition.” Even the spine is different looking and the end sheets are red and without art. The red,white and blue cover represents the United States of America, the birthplace of superhero comic books, and the colors of costumed heroes.

All the elements described above should make the Heroes Unlimited™ 30th Anniversary Hardcoverimpossible to mistake for the original HU2 signed and numbered HC edition. We have kept the price an unprecedented, low $40 for a hardcover Gold Edition of this size. We want to give Heroes Unlimited™ fans a crack at purchasing one before the price skyrockets on the secondary collectors’ market. Enjoy and game on!

Limited to 400 signed and numbered copies.

Signed and numbered on the credits page by Kevin Siembieda and the Palladium staff. We’ll try to get an artist or two to sign as well.

Blue fabric cover with gold foil imprinting. A completely new and different cover than the original HU2 Gold Edition.

Interior pages are exactly the same as the original HU2 HC and the current softcover edition.

Create any type of hero and superhuman – aliens and mutants to super-soldiers, martial artists, mages and Mega-Heroes.

100+ super abilities, plus scores of sub-powers.

100+ magic spells plus Enchanted (Magical) Weapons and Objects.

40+ Psionic abilities.

Super-Vehicles, high-tech hardware, in-depth characters and more.

Written by Kevin Siembieda. Cover art, Michael Wilson.

352 pages – ONLY $40 retail from Palladium Books only – Cat. No. 5000HC – available for pre-order – ships February. At the printer! (Pre-Orders: Though you may place a pre-order weeks before the product is actually released, your credit card is NOT charged until a week or so before the item is ready to ship.) Sorry, this product is not available in stores. Note: The prices is only $40 to celebrate the proud event of HU2's 30th Anniversary and make sure the hardcover is accessible to our core fan base. Enjoy.

A complete role-playing game with many sourcebooks.

Heroes Unlimited™ – celebrating 30 years of heroic adventure.

NEW! The Rifter® #65 – Available now

The Rifter® #65 is all about the secrets of power. In some cases, dark secrets: 60 new Necromancy spells and magic for Rifts® and other settings, the power of the Soul Merchant for BTS™, rising to power within the Black Market for Rifts®, a Chaos Earth® short story, and for Heroes Unlimited™, a band of superhumans, robotics and gadgets. Plus news, coming attractions, and more.

Every issue of The Rifter® is an idea factoryfor players and Game Masters to generate new ideas, and find new avenues of adventure. It provides useful, ready to go, source material you can just drop into your ongoing games. A doorway to new possibilities and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. And the many new characters, O.C.C.s, powers, magic, weapons, villains, monsters, adventures and ideas for one setting can be easily adapted to any Palladium setting. Every issue has material for Rifts® and at least 2-3 other Palladium game lines.

The Rifter® Number 65 includes:

Heroes Unlimited™ – Once More unto the Breach – by Alex Tulloch. A band of super-beings and their motives.

Beyond the Supernatural™ – Hollow Road Adventure – by Anthony Uyl. Evil takes unexpected forms in the pursuit of power. An adventure in which the players will discover that the local townsfolk can be just as evil as the Supernatural in their pursuit of power.

Rifts® – Black Market – Rise to Power, Part One – by Max Kautsch. Source material on the Black Market and one Faction’s bid for power.

RECENT RELEASE: The Rifter® #64 – Available now

The Rifter® #64 is our annual horror issue and includes:

Rifts® – The Black-Malice Legacy, Part II – by Matt Olfson and Will Hunter. Source material about the Coalition States’ psionic operatives and technology, including squad formation and new psychic martial art classes for special operatives in CS Psi-Battalion.

Rifts® Short Story – A Cold Night, Dead Past by Brett Caron.

Dead Reign™ source material by Jeff Duncan. New Survivor Occupations and related skills set in the Zombie Apocalypse.

Nightbane® source material by Bryant Telfer. A new class of mystical wanderer and Nightbane.

Palladium Fantasy® Adventure by Michael Osborne. Play Giant characters or pint-sized humans who invade the lairs of Trolls and evil beings in control of dark magic.

Like knights mounted on motorcycles, the Road Reapers travel the wasteland that Earth has become, searching for survivors, fighting zombies and waging war against the Death Cults that threaten all mankind.

This epic sourcebook explores the nature of heroes and heroism in the Zombie Apocalypse. It contains the secrets of the fabled Road Reapers, their structure, leadership, missions and purpose, as well as gear and combat notes. Plus a horrifying new zombie known as the Terror Zombie, plus Floaters (zombies in water) and which zombies can swim. Survival is one thing. Can you keep your humanity and be a hero?

Comprehensive background on the legendary Road Reapers™ – zombie hunters and heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse.

NEW! Rifts® World Book 34: Northern Gun™ Two – February 2014

In production! Expanded to 192-224 pages and filled with all kinds of adventuring gear: New environmental body armor, power armor, hovercycles, robot drones, robot haulers, combat vehicles, other vehicles, robot gladiators and much more. More information about the weapons, vehicles and practices of Northern Gun, including the new rage of robot gladiatorial combat. Expanded page count. Epic adventure.

NEW! Rifts® World Book 35: Megaverse® in Flames™ – March, 2014

The Minion War spills across Rifts Earth, where demons and infernals hope to recruit allies and use the Rifts as gateways of destruction. Their influence shakes things up across the planet, especially at locations where demons and Deevils already have a strong presence. Demons, Deevils and supernatural beings run rampant and wreak havoc across the world.

Demon plagues and mystic blights.

Soulmancy and Blood Magic revealed.

Magical and demonic weapons and war machines.

Demonic armies, strongholds and places of evil.

Hell Pits and Rune Forges.

Many Demon Lords, their minions and plans.

Calgary, the Kingdom of Monsters; in detail.

Ciudad de Diablo, Harpies’ Island and other notable Hell holes on Earth.

Lord Doom, Pain and other demonic leaders.

Horune treachery, Dimension Stormers and other villains.

Notable demonic generals, mercenaries, people and places.

Battleground: Earth – as demons and infernals amass their legions.

Global chaos and the places most dramatically affected by the Demon Plagues.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ – Game Description – Coming Spring 2014

This is the game Robotech® fans have wanted for decades.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is a fast-paced, tabletop combat game that captures the action and adventure of the Robotech® anime. Two or more players can engage in small squad skirmishes or scale up to massive battles. Relive the clashes of the First Robotech War, engage in stand-alone tactical games, or use the dynamic game pieces to enhance your Robotech® RPG experience. Or simply collect your favorite mecha from an expanding range of top-notch game pieces.

Mecha vs Mecha. Take command of the fighting forces of the United Earth Defense Force (UEDF) valiantly defending Earth from alien annihilation. Or lead the massive clone armies of the Zentraedi Armada to recover an alien artifact of immense power and enslave humankind.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Box Set – Cat. No. 55100

Brought to you by Palladium Books®, created with Ninja Division (the creative minds behind Soda Pop Miniatures and Cipher Studios).

Not a toy. Small parts, choking hazard. Not recommended for children under the age of 13. Adult supervision advised.

Cat. No. 55203 – $32.95 retail. Note: Pricing and content may be subject to some minor changes, but that is NOT anticipated.

Zentraedi Regult Battlepod Squadron

Expand your Zentraedi forces with their main infantry battle mecha; six figures total.

6 Regult Tactical Battlepods – the lightning quick Regults, armed with a pair of particle cannons and auto-cannons, attack in wave after wave.

Plastic game pieces. Models require assembly and painting.

Not a toy. Small parts, choking hazard. Not recommended for children under the age of 13. Adult supervision advised.

Cat. No. 55401 – $36.95 retail. Note: Pricing and content may be subject to some minor changes, but that is NOT anticipated.

Zentraedi Support Battlepods

Give your Zentraedi legion greater firepower with these artillery and support Battlepods; four figures total.

4 Zentraedi Support Battlepods, each of which can be made into any of the following:Gluuhaug-Regult – Light Artillery BattlepodSerauhaug-Regult – Heavy Artillery BattlepodTelnesta-Regult – Experimental Particle Beam BattlepodFour figures total.

Plastic game pieces. Models require assembly and painting.

Not a toy. Small parts, choking hazard. Not recommended for children under the age of 13. Adult supervision advised.

Cat. No. 55402 – $36.95 retail. Note: Pricing and content may be subject to some minor changes, but that is NOT anticipated.

1 Quel-Gulnau Recovery Pod – enhances the Glaug’s ability to bring in Battlepod reinforcements. Note: This figure has NEVER before been offered by any company.

Plastic game pieces. Models require assembly and painting.

Not a toy. Small parts, choking hazard. Not suitable for children under the age of 13. Adult supervision advised.

Cat. No. 55403 – $36.95 retail. Note: Pricing and content may be subject to some minor changes, but that is NOT anticipated at this time.

Robotech® Macross® Saga Sourcebook – New Size

Available now – 8½ x 11 size

All the famous mecha and action of Robotech® starts here with the Macross® Saga when an alien armada enters Earth orbit. They have come to reclaim a lost spacecraft that crash-landed on Earth 10 years earlier. A space fortress that Earth’s protectors have rebuilt into their own flagship against alien invasion. The resulting conflict gives birth to heroes and becomes the stuff of legend, but the Earth will never be the same. Robotech® The Macross® Saga Sourcebook is now available as an 8½ x 11 inch sourcebook.

Note: This is the setting for Robotech® RPG Tactics™, so if you’re looking for more information about the mecha, Earth’s defenders, the Zentraedi invaders, and Macross Saga setting, this is the book for you. Epic adventure awaits.

A Robotech® Role-Playing Game Sourcebook:

Transformable Veritech Fighters known as Valkyries take to the sky to defend the Earth.

BACK IN PRINT! Heroes Unlimited™ RPG, 2nd Edition

If you love playing smart games with heroic super beings in possession of strange and wondrous powers or technology, then Heroes Unlimited™ is the role-playing game for you. This RPG has unleashed the superheroes inside gamers for three decades and counting.

Heroes Unlimited™ RPG is probably most famous for rules and abilities that enable you to play ALL types of heroes while capturing the feel of comic books, and for being a thinking-gamer’s setting. All of this adds up to super-fun and epic comic book-style adventure.

11 Archetypes or Categories of Heroes, and another dozen subcategories including Crazy Heroes, those empowered by magical artifacts, Immortals, geniuses, and heroes without any super abilities whatsoever.

100+ super abilities, plus scores of sub-powers.

100+ magic spells plus Enchanted (Magical) Weapons and Objects.

40+ Psionic abilities.

Super-Vehicles, high-tech hardware, in-depth characters and more.

Create any type of hero and superhuman – aliens and mutants to super-soldiers, martial artists, mages and Mega-Heroes.

Heroes of the Megaverse® – A sourcebook that enables you to bring your heroes and supermen (and any of the HU2 sourcebook characters, powers and material) into the Rifts® and/or Phase World®/Three Galaxies™ settings, plus new powers, heroes, superhuman creation tables, and more.

And other sourcebooks.

BACK IN PRINT – Dragons & Gods™ – for Rifts® & Palladium Fantasy® – Available now

We sold out during the Christmas season, but this fun book, suitable for use in Rifts® (complete with M.D.C. stat notes) as well as the Palladium Fantasy RPG®, is so popular that we did a full reprint of it.

This is the 3rd printing of a dynamic sourcebook filled with big ideas and insightful rules for creating gods and their followers as well as presenting an array of deities and dragons. The dragon section provides insight to how Palladium Dragons think and function. Great artwork, too. Co-written with Erick Wujcik. With the Minion War™ soon to erupt on Rifts® Earth via Megaverse® in Flames™, you may find a book about dragons and gods to be a very useful sourcebook.

This expansive sourcebook presents detailed information about the mythical dragons and gods common to the Palladium Fantasy® world, but contains notes for use in Rifts® and is easily adapted to the Rifts® setting. It includes sections about Dragonwright, the Gods of Taut, Elementals, Demon Lords, dragons, and the forces of light and dark. Suitable for use with the Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Rifts®, Heroes Unlimited™, and Beyond the Supernatural™, or any fantasy game.

BACK IN PRINT – Rifts® World Book 18: Mystic Russia™ – Available now

This book is rich in monsters and magic based on Russian mythology and superstition. Rifts Russia is a land unlike anywhere else. The wilderness abounds with mischievous spirits, shape-changers and demons unique to Russia (including a comprehensive look at Necromancy).

Official Splicers® source material by Brandon Aten and Matthew Orr. Includes three new Splicer O.C.C.s (the Gardener, the Tormentor and the Geneticist) and their Bio-Armor and Bio-Enhancments. Art by Chuck Walton.

Official Palladium Fantasy RPG® – Zodiac rules and a type of Elven magic for it, by Carl Gleba.

Gen Con Indy – August 14-17, 2014

Gen Con Indy is going to be the premier convention event for Palladium Books this year. A large booth, special display, a ton of product including Robotech® RPG Tactics™, and all our role-playing games and sourcebooks, art prints, original art, and all kinds of good stuff. There will also be many Palladium creators available at the booth throughout the convention to chat and sign autographs, including writers Brandon Aten, Matthew Clements, Carl Gleba, me (Kevin Siembieda), Palladium staffers like Wayne Smith and Jeff Burke, and artists including Nick Bradshaw, Mike Leonard and Chuck Walton, among others. And it looks like there will be 70+ Palladium Books RPG events in the official Gen Con program. My heartfelt thanks to the Megaversal Ambassadors spearheading this project, as well as the Game Masters volunteering to run so many events for our many game lines. Awesome.

Palladium Books Gen Con Highlights:

70+ RPG gaming events in a dedicated area. More than 3x the number of games ever at a Gen Con. Sign up when you can and make us look good.

PDF downloads from DriveThruRPG.com

This is a great resource for getting out of print Palladium titles and other select books. We’ve made 90 titles available as PDF digital downloads from DriveThruRPG.com. This is a great way to try Palladium products and get access to out of print RPG source material. Some notable titles include: